Health Information Management: A Healthy Career Option

There is soaring craze among career-oriented people in USA, Canada, UK and Australia for entering into the profession of health information management. People who work in this area of healthcare are known as health information manager. Healthcare information management profession involves care and maintenance of health records through both traditional as well as electronic means.

In United States, health information managers play important roles in the smooth functioning of healthcare sectors. Most of the trained and skilled health information professionals in USA are employed by hospitals and healthcare facilities where they work with epidemiological, clinical, financial, demographic as well as coded health care data.
Specific job responsibilities

Prime job responsibilities of information management health professionals are to maintain medical and health insurance records. They are professionally trained to design as well as supervise health information systems to make sure that these systems meet medical, ethical and legal standards. These professionals mostly work along with health information technicians.

They make it certain that the medical records of all the concerned patients are updated, accurate and complete. Health management information professionals are responsible for handling database management which is further used in designing, analyzing and generating reports. These reports are later accessed by administrators and physicians.

Generally, health information managers do planning for information system, identify existing as well as future information requirements and expand health policy. With the help of science of informatics, these professionals handle collection, transmission and storage of information.

Popular employment avenues

Health information managers are generally employed in hospitals, healthcare facilities, private practices, health insurance companies, health departments and several other facilities which provide healthcare services. Professionals who are associated with this trade are specifically trained in the use of health informatics as well as health information technologies.

Education and certification

General educational requirement for exploring the professional field of health information management is a bachelors or masters degree in health information management. Employers mostly prefer degrees which are accredited by Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management Education [CAHIIM].

For initiating professional practice, aspirants also require to obtain Registered Health Information Administrator [RHIA] which is provided by American Health Information Management Association.

Annual earning

Annual median salary of health information managers and profesionals serving in the capacity of health informationa technician depends mostly on experience level. However, recent data suggests that these professionals earn between $48,000 and $80,000 in USA.